• Hams help in Western flooding
• League membership up in 1996!
• Heard Island team en route
• More MIREX QSOs
• Vermont section manager recall fails
• FCC seeks changes in Experimental Radio Service
• New section managers
• On the road with John Blaha, KC5TZQ
• KC5HBR to be aboard STS-81
• Solar report
• ARRL to offer ham-in-a-weekend class!
• FCC-issued call signs
• Robert M. Stephens, W1MM, SK
• Past President Carl L. Smith, W0BWJ, SK
• In Brief: Help wanted; Vanity update; Quello to leave FCC; Gordienko moves on; Mir frequency swap; Ham-astronaut wins photo award; AMSAT-Italia aboard ARISS; RCI to remain on the air; Ham float wins Rose Parade award; NJ traffic-handler awards; Youth net; Adventurer gives up solo Antarctic walk

Ham radio is pitching in to help in the wake of serious flooding in the Western US. In California, flooding 50 miles north of Sacramento resulted from a week of torrential rainfall. Tim Tribble, KD6MDV, of the Sacramento, California, City Fire Reserve RACES Operations Center reports that his group was activated noon on Friday, December 27, and has been on 24-hour duty ever since. RACES operators have provided supplemental communication for the Fire Department, including relaying information about water levels at area dams. The hams also have been providing support services, and have even delivered food to out-of-state mutual aid groups.

Tribble reports that up to 40 area amateurs have been manning the command post. Other command posts are located at the Wilton Fire Department and at Station 59 in the Murietta/Sloughouse area of California.

Last Saturday, seven operators were dispatched to the city of Marysville to assist the Department of Fish and Game to assess needs in caring for livestock. Another 10 were sent to aid the Red Cross in damage assessment.

Ham radio has also been assisting in flood recovery efforts in the Northwest, including Oregon, Washington and Nevada. In Oregon, long-distance telephone service to the Ashland-Grants Pass vicinity in the extreme southwestern portion of the state went down when a fiber optic cable was severed. Ham radio took over, linking the county via HF with the state emergency operations center in Salem. Oregon SEC Lew Williams, WD7NML, said Jackson and Josephine counties were the hardest hit. In Jackson County, hams helped provide communication at shelters there. Williams said hams also pitched in during sandbagging operations. In Nevada, Dick Creley, KJ7UK, of Gardnerville reports hams were activated on New Year's Day and provided secondary communication for the Douglas County Sheriff's Department, the Emergency Management Office and two shelters that housed some 50 residents. The approximately 30 hams in Douglas County and Carson City put in a total of 350 work-hours. Creley said damage was extensive, and the cities of Minden and Gardnerville were isolated. Bruce Pfeiffer, N7CPP, of Carson City said telephone service remained in operation, limiting the need for ham radio communication support. His wife Sue Pfeiffer, N7PRF, and Reed Ross, W7HOP, manned a station at the Carson City EOC, while he and Jo Ann Paul, N7MBM, manned a station at a local Carson City shelter.

In Yerington, Nevada, 17-year-old Carrick Dunn, KB7OBE, provided the only communication link between his town and the outside world. (We'll report additional information on ham radio's role in the Western US flooding as it becomes available --Ed.) --Amateur Radio Newsline/Jennifer Gagne, N1TDY

The ARRL ended 1996 with its largest membership in history, by a very healthy margin. The grand total was 175,023--up 1,461 from the previous month as the result of a membership promotion mailed in November. This is an increase of 3,574--or approximately 2.1%--from a year earlier. ARRL Executive Vice President David Sumner, K1ZZ, called the statistics "not bad for the worst business year for Amateur Radio in recent memory." For purposes of comparison, in 1995 League membership showed a decline of about 0.6%.

Full Membership is up by even more--a bit more than 3.1%--reflecting the second year of the League's effort to identify Associate Members who have earned licenses and therefore are entitled to be Full Members. The figures that follow are based on total membership.

The Southeastern Division is now the largest ARRL division, overtaking the Atlantic Division for the first time. The Rocky Mountain Division posted the largest percentage increase for the fifth time in the past six years. --Dave Sumner, K1ZZ

The Heard Island DXpedition team has set sail from Reunion Island and is on its way to Heard Island, where it will operate as VK0IR. The 21-member team left last Sunday (January 5) aboard the French vessel Marion Dufresne, and is on schedule to arrive there early on the morning of Sunday, January 12. The team plans to start operating on all bands two days after landing.

The team plans to set up a beacon station as part of the NCDXF beacon system as soon as possible after landing. The beacon will identify itself as VK0IR and will become part of the NCDXF worldwide beacon system that transmits on 14.100, 18.110, 21.150, 24.930 and 28.200 MHz. Each beacon in the system transmits for 10 seconds on each band on a 3-minute cycle.

The VK0IR transmission will begin its 3-minute cycle on 20 meters, 1 minute 10 seconds (1:10 minutes) after the hour (and every 3 minutes after that). It will send VK0IR in CW running 100 W, followed by 1-second-long steady tones at 100, 10, 1 and 0.1 W. Then the Heard Island beacon will move progressively to the next-higher frequency and make similar transmissions, changing bands every 10 seconds, with the 10-meter transmission that completes the cycle starting at 1 minute 10 seconds (1:50 minutes) after the hour (and every 3 minutes after that). The latest beacon information for VK0IR (and for the entire NCDXF system) is available on the Internet at http://www.ncdxf.org/beacon.htm.

Stations are asked to listen for the beacon and report peak times, strength and propagation (ie, short-path, long-path) to ON4UN via e-mail to John Devoldere, ON4UN at john.devoldere@innet.be or via packet to ON4UN @ON4AWP.OVN.BEL.EU. Please be accurate and be brief.

When the team is ready to start operation, ON4UN will immediately post the start time on the Heard reflector (see below).

While on Reunion Island, team members operated as TO0R, primarily on 160 meters. Operation as TO0R/mm has continued as the team heads for Heard Island, a territory of Australia located in the South Indian Ocean. The team expects to leave Heard Island at month's end. On the return sail, the team will stop at Kerguelen Island "for about one day," according to ON4UN. He said the chances of any Kerguelen operation are "minimal."

TO0R and Heard Island (VK0IR) logs are available via the Internet at http://www.aurumtel.com/heard-log.html. Logs for TO0R and VK0IR also will be made available via e-mail at heard-log@ve7tcp.ampr.org (subject line should read HEARD-LOG). QSL both TO0R and VK0IR via W4FRU.

Devoldere reports that the first Amateur Radio activity from Heard Island came in 1947 when Allan Campbell-Drury operated as VK3ACD/Heard. He was on the island for 15 months and returned to the island the two following years. The current DXpedition is believed to be the largest ever mounted and has a $320,000 budget. Last fall, the ARRL Colvin Award Grants Committee authorized a grant of $5000 for the Heard Island DXpedition.

Those interested in having a blow-by-blow account of the DXpedition can send a "subscribe" message (leave subject line blank) to heard-request@ve7tcp.ampr.org. Late news, logs and information on the DXpedition also is available on the Heard Island home page, http://www.ccnet.com/~cordell/HI/. --digested from the Heard Island reflector

More than 4000 students and members of the US Air Force Academy community in Colorado Springs, Colorado, turned out January 7 to witness a successful QSO between cadets and US Astronaut John Blaha, KC5TZQ, aboard the Russian Mir space station. Signals were crystal clear as Blaha answered students' questions and talked about the bright prospects for continued cooperation between the US and Russia in space.

On January 8, Blaha spoke with students at several different schools in South Africa, thanks to the efforts of Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS5AKV, who provided the linkup. The contact was also simulcast on 7205 kHz. Blaha answered questions from the students, and allowed that he looks at the stars and Earth from a different perspective now that he's been in space.

Other successful MIREX QSOs were completed between Blaha and schools in Mississippi and Florida. On January 8, students at Harper McCaughn Elementary, Diamondhead, Mississippi, got to talk with Blaha. The contact was a tremendous success, and more than 700 students and visitors were on hand (including TV and newspaper reporters) as pupils asked 14 questions. During the contact, the McCaughn team, led by Terry Jones, NZ8C, experimented with switching between a high-gain, 22-element antenna and a simple turnstile antenna.

Students at Geneva Elementary, Geneva, Florida, had a smooth, nine-minute contact with Mir on January 9, and the pupils got to ask 11 questions. Russian Cosmonaut Valery Korzun also said hello to the students. Audio from the contact went out over a local repeater, and the proceedings were taped and broadcast by the school's own cable TV network. Outside news media also visited. Blaha returns to Earth later this month (see related story below).

A scheduled contact January 9 with Emerson Elementary School, Snohomish, Washington, was unsuccessful. Another attempt is set for today (January 10).

Southeastern Division Vice Director Evelyn Gauzens, W4WYR, summed up her feelings about the MIREX successes by loosely paraphrasing Neal Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon: "Another bold step for ham-kind." --Rosalie White, WA1STO

An effort to recall ARRL Vermont Section Manager Justin Barton, WA1ITZ, of Randolph, Vermont, has turned instead into a vote of confidence. Recall ballots were counted January 7 by ARRL staff members under the watchful eyes of representatives of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm and New England Director Tom Frenaye, K1KI. The vote tally was 135 "yes" votes and 257 "no" votes.

The same voting procedure used for director and vice director elections was used in the recall procedure, except that ballots were sent by first-class mail to increase the likelihood of timely delivery during the holiday season. A return envelope bearing the member's address label was provided, along with an inner envelope to hold the ballot. The outer envelopes were opened and the contents removed before the inner envelopes were opened to remove the ballots, to ensure the secrecy of the vote.

Barton was re-elected in May, defeating Ronni Stern, KA1NRR, 234 to 105. The recall petition was submitted last October.

The FCC has proposed changes to the Commission's Experimental Radio Service (Part 5) Regulations (Notice of Proposed Rule Making in ET Docket 96-256). Among the suggested changes were longer license terms, blanket licensing of related multiple experiments by a single entity, and electronic filing of applications. The new rules also would encourage student experiments by issuing licenses to schools as well as to individual students, and by permitting use of additional frequencies.

Among other frequencies, the proposed rules would change the 2450-MHz experimental band to 2402 to 2483.5 MHz and would add 10.0 to 10.5 GHz, raising the possibility that the Amateur Service and the student Experimental Service could end up sharing spectrum.

Comments are due by February 10, 1997.

Mike Siegel, KI6PR, of Merced, California, has resigned as San Joaquin Valley section manager, effective January 1, 1997, for health reasons and to spend more time with his family. Assistant Section Manager Don Costello, AB6TA, also of Merced, has been named to replace him. Costello also holds an appointment as a public information coordinator. Siegel, who became SJV section manager in January 1992, will serve as an assistant section manager.

A new section manager has been appointed to fill a vacancy in Idaho. The new SM is Mike Langrell, AA7VR, of Boise.

Jerry Buxton, WB0HUS, ran into John Blaha, KC5TZQ, the other day while driving to work. While monitoring the Mir downlink frequency, he got lucky when Blaha came on the air calling CQ. "I picked up the microphone and answered, and he called me back!" said Buxton, who was clearly thrilled by the experience. "This is the greatest! My first Mir contact!"

Buxton said Blaha had a "good, clear strong signal" into the Fort Worth, Texas, area. "I asked him how his morning was up there. He said they were very busy with their experiments."

Buxton said working Mir from his car was "truly one of the funnest parts of ham radio to me." He said he can't wait until the next SAREX shuttle flight "to see if I can have any luck then." His mobile rig is a Yaesu FT-5200 running 50 W into a 5/8-wave mag-mounted antenna on the roof of his car.

NASA managers have set Sunday, January 12, as the official launch date for the first shuttle mission of 1997. Aboard the shuttle Atlantis for the STS-81 mission--the fifth in a series of docking missions between the space shuttle and the Russian space station Mir--will be Jerry Linenger, KC5HBR. He'll replace US astronaut John Blaha, KC5TZQ, aboard Mir. Blaha has been on Mir since last September 19, and has been active on 2-meter FM during his mission, which included several successful MIREX contacts with students in late December and early January. Linenger will spend more than four months on Mir before returning to Earth on space shuttle mission STS-84 in mid-May. The STS-81 mission will not carry the SAREX payload. It's not known if Linenger will be active on Amateur Radio, either from the shuttle or from Mir.

The STS-81 launch window opens at 0927 UTC and extends for about 10 minutes. The STS-81 mission is scheduled to last just over 10 days. --NASA

Solar prognosticator Tad Cook, KT7H, in Seattle, Washington, reports: Last week's bulletin reported that solar flux was expected to peak for the short term in the mid-80s around January 14. That estimate has been revised down a bit to the high 70s on January 13 and 14. Flux values are then expected to drift down gradually to just above 70 around the end of the month. Of course, this is based upon the previous solar rotation, and we never know when a new active region may surprise us and drift into view. Average solar flux this week was about the same as the week previous, but gradually inching upward. Sunspot numbers were up just a little. The solar flux on every day this week was below the average for the past 90 days, which was 76.

Sunspot numbers for January 2 through January 8 were 0, 0, 13, 15, 15, 12 and 0, respectively, with a mean of 7.9. The 10.7-cm flux was 72, 73.3, 73.8, 74.4, 73.1, 73.3 and 73.8, respectively, with a mean of 73.4. The Planetary A indices for the same period were 5, 2, 4, 3, 2, 10, and 7, respectively, with a mean of 4.7.

Attention clubs! The ARRL is offering a chance for newcomers to get a Technician-class ticket in a single weekend! Beginning in March, the League will sponsor three Amateur Radio licensing classes, to be held at ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut!

Classes will cover the Technician-class ticket or General-class theory. In addition to the material required to earn a license, each class will include proper repeater and amateur operating procedures, plus a radio and test-equipment display and demonstration.

Instructing will be Ed Hammond, WN1I, an author and lecturer who's been a ham for 25 years.

Here's the schedule: Technician licensing classes will be held March 14, 15 and 16, and April 11, 12 and 13, 1997. The General theory upgrade class will be held April 25, 26 and 27, 1997. Classes will run from 6 to 10 PM each Friday evening, and from 9 AM to 5 PM each Saturday and Sunday.

Each complete course is $159, which includes the three-day workshops, two books, and study notes, correspondence and study exercises. There also will be pre-class tours of ARRL Headquarters and the W1AW Maxim Memorial station. The course fee also includes lunch and beverages on Saturday and Sunday (hotel reservation includes continental breakfast). Lodging and transportation costs are additional.

For more information or reservations, call (toll-free) 888-277-5289. Advance registration is required.

The following is a list of the FCC's most recently issued call signs as of January 3, 1997.

# New prefixes are available for this block, but none have been issued.

++All call signs in this group have been issued in this area.

One of New England's veteran hams, Bob Stephens, W1MM, of Holyoke, Massachusetts, died December 20, 1996. He was 92. Stephens, first licensed in 1919, was active up until just a few days before he died. He was an Honor Roll DXer and enjoyed CW. In his younger years, Stephens was a quarterback for the University of Nebraska. Services were December 24. --Tom Frenaye, K1KI/Jack Heffernan, W4HVG

Past President Carl L. Smith, W0BWJ, died January 9, 1997. He was 78 and had been in poor health for several years. Memorial arrangements have not yet been announced.

Carl Smith's contributions to the ARRL spanned four decades. He served as Colorado SCM in 1955-56, Rocky Mountain Division Vice Director in 1957-58, Director in 1961-70, and was elected Vice President in 1970. He became Honorary Vice President in 1972 and in 1974 was again elected Vice President, moving up to First Vice President in 1980. Under the IARU Constitution then in force, this made him also Vice President of IARU. Smith was First Vice President in November 1983 when President Vic Clark, W4KFC, died in office, and he succeeded Clark as President. He served in that office until the following March. --Dave Sumner, K1ZZ

• Help Wanted: The ARRL Washington, DC, office has an opening for an electronics engineer (BSEE or equivalent experience) with knowledge of or a desire to learn radio spectrum management. Duties to include representing the interests of Amateur Radio to US government agencies, the ITU and regional organizations. Public-speaking experience, professional-quality writing and the ability to deal with people on an international basis is required. Spanish-language skills are a plus. Send resume and salary expectations to R. Boucher, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT. 06111; fax 860-594-0298.

• Vanity Update: The vanity program is continuing to be popular. The FCC office in Gettysburg reports it received 1273 vanity call sign applications (585 paper, 688 electronic) during December. The FCC has not announced when Gate 3 will open.

• Quello to leave FCC: FCC Commissioner Jim Quello has announced he won't seek appointment to another term. His most recent term expired last June, but he remains in office until a successor is confirmed. The 82-year-old Democrat generally is regarded as a champion of broadcasters. He's been on the FCC for 23 years.

• Gordienko moves on: QST Assistant Contest Manager Al Gordienko, K1PI (ex-KF2FB), is leaving January 17 to take a position in the MIS department of Waterbury Rolling Mills Inc in Waterbury, Connecticut. A native of Russia, Gordienko formerly was active from club station UZ4FWD. He previously worked in the ARRL VEC Department.

• Mir frequency swap: Astronaut John Blaha, KC5TZQ, has announced that, as of January 1, 1997, the 2-meter voice and packet frequencies for the Mir space station would change from 145.800-MHz uplink and 145.200-MHz downlink to 145.800-MHz downlink and 145.200-MHz uplink for ground stations. These frequencies are for both FM voice and packet operations. --AMSAT News Service

• Ham-astronaut wins photo award: Astronaut Jay Apt, N5QWL, photographed the first and second-place photos in the "Space" category in the aerospace industry trade magazine Aviation Week and Space Technology's annual year-end photo issue for 1996--and they weren't even photos from space! First-place winner is a time exposure shot of the Grumman Gulfstream 2 Shuttle Training Aircraft doing touch-and-go's at night at the Kennedy Space Center. The second-place winner is a T-38 training jet's back seat point of view of a Titan IV launch shortly before the STS-79 crew arrived at the Cape. The photos are on pages 48-50 of the issue cover-dated December 23/30, 1996. --Philip Chien, KC4YER

• AMSAT-Italia aboard ARISS: Paolo Pitacco, IW3QBN, the president of AMSAT-Italia has signed the memorandum of understanding for ARISS--Amateur Radio on the International Space Station. A conference of representatives from several countries worked out the agreement last November. The memorandum of understanding supported cooperation in the development of ARISS. --Rosalie White, WA1STO

• RCI to remain on the air: To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the demise of Radio Canada International were premature (see The ARRL Letter, Vol. 16, No. 1). In mid-December, Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps reversed CBC president Perrin Beatty's decision to close Radio Canada International. Under an agreement, the Canadian government will provide permanent funding to keep the foreign broadcasting service on the air. Radio Canada broadcasts in seven languages. Its 125 employees had already been given termination notices when the reprieve was worked out. --From Canadian press reports

• Ham float wins Rose Parade award: A parade float carrying a working Amateur Radio station won the Queen's Trophy for its interest and originality in the 1997 Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day. The Edison International float, "150 Years of Lighting the Way," carried members of the Edison Amateur Radio Network, who operated using the club call sign, WB6UCD. The float's sponsor was Edison International, the holding company for the Southern California Edison Company (see "Up Front in QST," January 1997, page 19). --Amateur Radio Newsline

• NJ traffic-handler awards: The annual New Jersey Traffic Awards were presented December 7, 1996, during the New Jersey Traffic Handlers' convention in Trenton. The W2UEZ Rookie of the Year award winner was Gary Metzger, WB2RPW. The K2SE VHF Traffic Award went to Jean Renomeron, N2VQA. Ray Czyzewski Jr, WA2SEI, garnered the W2SWE Traffic Handler of the Year honors. Each received an engraved plaque that honors the memory of the three awards' namesakes. --The Hudson Loop/Michael Karp, N2FM

• Youth net: A 75-meter youth net meets on 3970 kHz Sundays at 2030 UTC. For more information, contact Jack Hamm, N1REU, 806 Bay Rd, Stoughton, MA 02072; e-mail n1reu@ amsat.org. --Amateur Radio Newsline

• Adventurer gives up solo Antarctic walk: British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes has given up his attempt to walk across Antarctica after completing about a quarter of the trip. Fiennes is suffering from kidney stones. The walk was to raise money for cancer research. Morag Howell, GM0MUV, was active as VP8CME from Antarctica as part of Fiennes's expedition, serving as the Antarctic base leader. --CBC News

The ARRL Letter is published by the American Radio Relay League, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111; tel 860-594-0200; fax 860-594-0259. Rodney J. Stafford, KB6ZV, President; David Sumner, K1ZZ, Executive Vice President.

Circulation, Kathy Capodicasa, N1GZO, e-mail kcapodicasa@arrl.org.

Editorial, Rick Lindquist, N1RL, e-mail elindquist@arrl.org.

Visit the ARRLWeb page at http://www.arrl.org.

The purpose of The ARRL Letter is to provide the essential news of interest to active, organizationally minded radio amateurs faster than it can be disseminated by our official journal, QST. We strive to be fast, accurate and readable in our reporting.

Material from The ARRL Letter may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, including photoreproduction and electronic databanks, provided that credit is given to The ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League.